The present invention generally relates to a method and a system for processing customer generated orders for any one of a plurality of products. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and system having one or more client computers connected via a large scale network to a server and a plurality of supplier computers for virtually automatically processing customer generated orders through all necessary steps from receipt of the customer order to delivery and billing of the purchased product.
Most known conventional customer order fulfillment processes generally include complex internal distribution systems, warehouse processes, procurement processes, customer order placement processes and may or may not include the capability of forecasting inventory levels. Most of these processes are done manually in that they are at least partially done with the use of considerable human intervention, which is inefficient, costly and time consuming. Some of these processes may take several days from the receipt of a customer order to the time of shipping.
There are computer implemented systems that attempt to reduce the use of human intervention at various steps of such complicated manual fulfillment processes. However, they have not been completely successful because their architecture and methodology are deficient, and require manual intervention at some point during the process. For example, some known computer implemented systems that are currently in use in processing orders in large volume require human intervention in initially accepting the order and placing it in the system. However, human intervention is also needed to place a purchase order with a supplier to fulfill the customer order. Additionally, human intervention may be required to receive the ordered product from the supplier, place it in a warehouse, and then ship it to the customer. At every point in the process where human intervention is required, additional inefficiency, expense and time delay are introduced.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved method and system for automatically and efficiently processing customer generated orders for products upon entry of the orders into the system to delivery of the ordered product.
A related object of the present invention is to provide such an improved method and system that has an architecture and methodology that enables customer orders to be processed in a manner that effectively bypasses the use of conventional distribution systems, warehouse processes, procurement processes and the need for forecasting of inventory levels.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method and system to create a fully automated end-to-end supply chain or customer order fulfillment process that can operate on a worldwide scale using a large scale network, such as the Internet.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such an improved method and system that is designed to receive customer orders, determine the suppliers that will deliver the products ordered, process the orders by immediately shipping the products and billing the customer, and periodically synchronize the available inventory of all suppliers, all without human intervention.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such an improved method and system for use by large scale multinational companies as well as small enterprises, wherein the advantages of the system include: (i) substantially reducing the number of people that are required for processing customer orders through delivery of a product and billing for the same, (ii) substantially increasing the speed of processing of such customer orders through delivery and billing for the same, and (iii) substantially reducing the overhead costs associated with such processing. The system is extremely powerful in that it can operate on a worldwide basis and can accommodate literally thousands of products ordered by thousands of customers supplied by thousands of suppliers.
The present invention is directed to a method and a system for processing customer generated orders for any number of products that may be marketed by a large multinational company or a small one. The method and system process the customer order from its receipt through delivery of and billing for the products.
More particularly, the method and system are adapted to utilize one or more client computers connected via a large scale network such as the Internet to a server and to a plurality of supplier computers to fulfill customer generated orders on a worldwide basis. The client computers and supplier computers, depending on the volume of activity, may be personal computers, mini computers, mainframe computers and other types of computers, and will be referred to respectively herein as a client and a supplier.
In accordance with the present invention, after the customer order for one or more products is received by the client from a customer, the client creates an order event with a preferred supplier, which the server routes to the preferred supplier. The server then periodically monitors the supplier to determine the status of the order event as it is processed by the preferred supplier. If the supplier accepts the purchase event, it ships the product and notifies the client of that action, and the client then prepares a bill for the customer. The server periodically synchronizes inventory levels between the client and all suppliers, including obviously the preferred supplier.
The present invention is adapted to communicate over a large scale network, which is preferably the Internet, on a frequent basis with all clients and all suppliers that are a part of the system. This preferably includes one client, although more than one client and hundreds of suppliers are contemplated. The structure of the information that is required to make the system function is well defined and does not permit spontaneous communications that have not been previously defined. Communications are chosen from a multiplicity of choices to convey the desired information, and care has been given to defining requests and responses to every common and some uncommon exigencies that may arise in the course of processing such customer orders, determining preferred suppliers, making shipments, determining available inventory, and billing customers for products ordered. The careful structuring of information that must be communicated in the course of doing business enables the processing to be carried out automatically, without any human intervention except in but a few instances.
Such processing for a typical order can be completed in a few seconds, which when projected for a large segment of a company""s sales activity, will produce tremendous reductions in overhead and operating expenses.